Germans don skullcaps to protest anti-Semitism

BERLIN -- Germans of various faiths donned Jewish skullcaps and took to the streets Wednesday in several cities to protest an anti-Semitic attack in Berlin and express fears about growing hatred of Jews in the country.

The kippa protest was triggered by the daytime assault last week of two young men wearing skullcaps in an upscale neighborhood in the German capital. The attack, in which a 19-year-old Syrian asylum-seeker is a suspect, drew outrage in Germany and sharp condemnation by Chancellor Angela Merkel.

It is the latest of several anti-Semitic incidents causing many Jews to wonder about their safety in Germany, which has tried to atone for Nazis' killing of 6 million European Jews in the Holocaust more than 70 years ago.

The rising tensions have come as a time when Germany has been grappling with an influx of more than 1 million mostly Muslim migrants, along with the rise of a nationalist party, the Alternative for Germany, which was elected to Parliament last year. Its leaders are known for their openly anti-Muslim stance, but their anti-Semitism is less apparent.

Across Europe, anti-Semitism has been on the rise in recent years, and thousands of Jews -- mostly from France -- have moved to Israel.

About 150 people -- Jews, Muslims, Christians and atheists -- came together Wednesday and put on kippas in a show of solidarity in the eastern city of Erfurt. Other rallies were expected later in the day in Berlin, Cologne and Potsdam.

In last week's attack in Berlin, the 21-year-old victim, an Arab Israeli who said he wore the kippa in a show of solidarity with his Jewish friends, caught the assault on video, which quickly went viral. It showed a young man whipping him violently with a belt while shouting "Yahudi!" -- Jew in Arabic.

Germany's main Jewish leader, Josef Schuster, sparked tension within the Jewish community Tuesday when he said he would advise people visiting big cities against wearing Jewish skullcaps.

The RIAS group tracking anti-Semitism said there were 947 anti-Semitic incidents last year in Berlin, including 18 attacks and 23 threats last year.

In all of Germany, authorities say there are a high volume of anti-Semitic incidents reported, with the equivalent of nearly four per day in 2017. There were 1,453 anti-Semitic incidents, compared with 1,468 incidents in 2016 and 1,366 in 2015.

Schuster's comments on hiding the skullcap drew sharp criticism from other Jewish leaders, who say Jews should wear a kippa to show they're not afraid.

"Jewish identity is not something we should hide," said Rabbi Yehuda Teichtal. "We have to be proud of who we are and at the same time fight anti-Semitism."

For years, many Jewish men in Germany and across Europe who wear the kippa as a symbol of their devotion to God have been hiding their skullcaps under baseball hats when they are in public.

Anti-Semitism has existed in Europe for hundreds of years, often fanned by Christian churches who have blamed Jews for the killing of Jesus. In recent decades, however, Muslim immigrants have added a new strain by holding Jews responsible for the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

"We also have new phenomena (of anti-Semitism in Germany). We have refugees now, for example, or people of Arab origin who are bringing a different type of anti-Semitism into the country," Merkel told Israeli TV this week. "In the new government, we have for the first time appointed a commissioner for Jewish life in Germany and in the fight against anti-Semitism."

The new commissioner, Felix Klein, starts his job in early May.